They’re brain teasers that really challenge your detective skills, so it’s a bit surprising you’re not pushed toward them more directly as “main missions” in some way. They’re brain teasers that really challenge your detective skills, so it’s a bit surprising you’re not pushed toward them more directly as “main missions” in some way. While many of these cosmetics are cool, I never had any interest in spending money here given how many the options can be unlocked naturally for free simply by playing.Sea of Thieves is designed around the idea of resetting mostly from square one each time you play, so it usually doesn’t take long to get back into the thick of things when you start a new session. For example, the actual map that shows your ship’s location relative to the various islands is below deck, meaning a single person can’t steer and see it at the same time, or how you need to manually raise, lower, and adjust the sails to the wind’s direction. Be the pirates you want to be and share adventures with friends in a world where every sail on the horizon is another crew of players with unknown intent. The freedom is liberating once you’re let loose, but it’s as if Sea of Thieves expects you to start running full speed without teaching you how to walk properly yet.All of the other side content – such as the dungeon-like Strongholds that have all players competing to clear out a Skeleton Fortress to nab the treasures within, the various encounters at sea like the skeleton ships that rise up out of the ocean to attack, or just organic run-ins with other hostile players – were complete mysteries to me until my friend explicitly explained things. As you rank up with each company, you’ll gain new titles to display above your character, more lucrative and exciting Voyages to undertake, and new outfits to purchase. Rather than gaining experience points to level up a character, you increase your reputation with five different Companies by completing voyages, finishing Commendations (which are challenges like delivering a certain number of resources to quest givers over time), or turning in specific items like a chest of treasure to the Gold Hoarder. You’ve actually got to adjust the sails to account for the shifting winds, bust out your compass to make sure you’re going the right way, and use your telescope to inspect land masses in the distance – and when there is down time, you and your crew can pull out your musical instruments and listen as they all cleverly sync together and play the same song, perfectly in rhythm.
This means that each and every time you log into Sea of Thieves you’re given a brand-new ship in one of three classes based on the size of your crew– Sloop (up to two players), Brigantine (up to three players), or Galleon (up to four players) – and everything except your long-term progression goals are reset. The Arena is exhilarating, stripping away any concerns about deciding where to go next and freeing up my mind to focus solely on PvP.The team coordination required to be successful in the Arena is nearly an Olympic-level feat and really puts the best and most impressive parts of Sea of Thieves on full display: it encourages cooperation with an all-hands-on-deck-style approach. It’s all stagnant.The disposable nature of your ships is a big part of why upgrades for them are also limited entirely to cosmetics: things like sail colors, flag designs, and the visual theme of cannons and other objects. The only exception are the Tall Tales, which usually get kicked off by an NPC with some enticing flavor text – but as soon as you set off, everything else is communicated via obscure treasure maps, lore objects, and bread crumb trails. Each company is associated with a certain activity you could pursue: Sea Dogs for the PvP-focused Arena, Order of Souls for collecting skeleton skulls through PvE combat, or Hunter’s Call for gathering fish and animal meat.The variety of missions is good, but in a game about colorful pirates it seems like a huge missed opportunity that the flavor and personalities of each faction are about as deep as a puddle. If Sea of Thieves was free-to-play from small studio, then it would be kind of fine (but still bad). And that’s when I discovered that even though its free-roaming gameplay is enjoyable enough, once I realized what these missions, called Tall Tales, were and how to access them they led to some of my favorite moments.Rather than playing out like the brief, objective-focused Voyages, which are standard-issue RPG quests usually about killing a certain named enemy or collecting a specific item, Tall Tales are structured more like one-off mystery adventures that connect into an overarching story. Discover your inner pirate and plot your course for hidden riches in a treacherous shared world. While many of these cosmetics are cool, I never had any interest in spending money here given how many the options can be unlocked naturally for free simply by playing.Sea of Thieves is designed around the idea of resetting mostly from square one each time you play, so it usually doesn’t take long to get back into the thick of things when you start a new session.
Maybe it means you and your crew plundering the vessels of would-be explorers on the open sea as you wreak havoc across the ocean, searching for lost ships and buried treasure on a quest to become a legendary pirate to rival Jack Sparrow, or just singing shanties with a pet monkey.